Dalerian

It's a few days ago now, so I don't remember the details. I've not had much joy with Right-Clicks ... the soldier often seems to ignore those little arrows, but I'm calling this one a Problem Between Chair and Keyboard. I don't recall which was the Primary weapon - if it makes a difference, I'll keep the longer range one in the soldier's right hand in future. Hmm. More testing is obviously required...

I thought I'd try out the Power Sword. A unit had one, with a plasma pistol in the other hand (for paranoia). A hyperworm started chomping on a nearby colleague (out of sword range). Sword-guy just stood and watched it. And watched it. And watched it. (Luckily, the worm wasn't in an accurate mood.) I dropped the sword - and Sword-guy then immediately fried the worm with the plasma pistol. It looked as though the sword's range limit was being applied to -both- weapons, not just to the sword. (I wondered if it made a difference which hand the sword was in, or which was equipped first, etc.) Has anyone noticed anything like this? Dal.

Vunderbar! A slight change to the url, and we're all happy campers again. Now ... how do I inspire heroines & gurus to completely fill it with all sorts of fascinating and essential tid-bits? (I'm happy to write things, but I know how little I know, relative to most everyone else here...)

What's happened to the wiki of late? It was a useful start on an x-com1 resource (albeit a tad light on x-com3) ... but it's had an error every time I've visited it lately... (I'm referring to the one at: http://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php/Main_Page ) Dal.

At the moment, I'm in love with the mini-launchers. Unfortunately, they're not actually for sale at the moment, so I'm having to 'borrow' (nice word) all the ammo I'm using. At ~20-30 shots per alien encounter, that's resulting in quite a number of 'tours' of Marsec's ammo plant. (As a result, I'm being very choosy in what I take out - no machine guns, rocket launchers, auto cannon, etc.) I found (and took) a power sword. Maybe I'll find a use for it - it seems rather pointless at the moment, though.

Wow ... something you didn't know? *grin* Thanks for the info. Thinking about it, it matches experience. So ... I need to make all "tours" happen via hovercar, not hoverbike, I guess... (Mind you, given the impact on my score, such tours are thinly scattered this time round - I'm only really hunting mini-launcher ammo.)

<Brief> I raid a place. Find Elerium. Carry it home. Where is it? (My elerium ammo for craft doesn't increase.) <Verbose> A pal at Marsec invited a couple of my crew for a tour of their weapons factory. Several of the guards fell asleep, so we took their mini rocket launchers (you never know what would happen if they'd discharged while dreaming.) There was Elerium lying around. Well, we couldn't leave that where any casual thief could steal it, could we? It's far too valuable. So ... we took it. Once we got back to base, it had vanished. Any thoughts on where it went? The first time, I thought it was converted to ammo for the elerium-powered ship weapons, but this last time I checked before and after, and the stock was at 500 units. This isn't a one-off occurance. I'm wondering if I should bother picking Elerium up any more... Dal.

I've only ever seen the red circle after I've ignored an alarm. Am I missing something that would trigger this?

Two of those ufos just wandered over my city, with their 3 escorts. My incredibly brave/stupid pilots engaged them. Technically, we outnumbered them 6:5. (4 hoverbikes + 2 hovercars - I don't think the Aliens were very scared.) After one exchange of salvos, I turned tail and sprinted. No deaths, but both hovercars need serious repairs. On the positive side, one of -their- craft will need a scratch re-painting. (To quote one of my pilots, "If you think we look beaten up, you should see the other ... uh ... ah, well, never mind.") So - even if the Skeletoids get in one of those craft for a special journey - they'll have a nice safe ride. Until I can approach air equality, I'll be relying on beamed-down aliens. (I'm currently working on the theory that making&selling disruptors/devastators will eventually pay for a pair of Hawks. I hope -they- can regain some airborne pride.)

Well, if they can arrive for me on Monday week 3 as a "beginner", I think someone experienced enough to play SuperHuman can handle them on week 2.

Well, I'm definitely "off" Monday, then. These new (relatively) super-critters are not only flying, faster, smarter & better shots, they also have this ability whereby they don't take damage from my initial shots - a blue energy protects them for a while. I assume that this is the "shield" I've heard about on here. Unfortunately, when it runs out, it seems to vanish. (I didn't get any on the bodies.) Maybe I need to go raiding against armed with stun grenades... Yikes... Roll on Engineering, with their production of a 'toxigun' - maybe that will help. Hmm. Ok ... enough speculating, back to making Alien paste.

On Sunday, my alien raids were a few Anthropods* and a few misc lesser aliens. The next day I find them arriving in bigger ships, with more escorts. The raids are suddenly "manned" ("aliened"?) by some yellow flying critters. Critters which have tactical nous, better accuracy and a supply of boomeroids. (Half the squad which discovered this new breed is enjoying enforced R&R in the medibay, as a result.) Does some kind of difficulty upgrade occur on Sunday nights? Dal. *Something _that_ stupid could only be named so by someone who doesn't respect humanity.

Time for the question that just might get me lynched... How do I lower my score? Now, before you reach for the pitchforks... Yes, I'm playing beginner level at first (I -am- a beginner!). If I shoot down alien ships, I get points. If I let them download aliens, I then get sites that I have to attack. If I attack them, I can take casualties, but there aren't many soldiers to hire yet. (Likewise if the aliens get to destroy my craft.) By attacking the download sites early I get less aliens, and thus less points. That's a start. I don't appear to have an "aliens terrorise..." misson to reduce my score, nor can I let them keep a few bases alive. I've tried attacking the city itself - turning my weapons on the CoS temple. That seems to help a little. Killing a civilian didn't -appear- to help, though I only tried once and may have missed it. I've not tried ignoring alerts - does that reduce it? Any other ideas?

That makes sense - I didn't even think of a popper. I saw the 2 Anthropods, and assumed they'd been alone. Hmm. Those poppers -are- nasty critters, then. I've always taken them out with distance fire before now, and not really seen them as much of a threat. My respect for them has just grown remarkably...

I just found one place where this has backfired on me. *wry grin* In a warehouse, where "ground" is level 4. I heard an alien in the lift shaft, and set an ambush outside the door. Fish-wielding Alien walked out, was diced. (So far, so good.) Before I could blink, the alien -behind- him did -something-. (I never saw what.) When the screams and smoke cleared, half of the ambush party were on the ground, four floors below, with critical wounds. The alien involved was diced for its efforts - but I have 3 extra people in my medi-bays. I'd love to know what the alien did - they each only had fish on them - so I don't know how it took out half the floor like that...